The Public Archaeology of Treasure comprises the select proceedings of the 5th University of Chester Archaeology Student Conference which took place on 31 January 2020 in the lecture theatre of the ...Grosvenor Museum, Chester and was complemented by an online Twitter conference on the following morning, 1 February 2020. Reflecting on the shifting and conflicting meanings, values and significances for treasure in archaeology's public engagements, interactions and manifestations, the volume emphasises how education and research cannot avoid the persistent and evocative associations of 'treasure' in socio- political discourse and popular culture. This first-ever exploration of 'the public archaeology of treasure' thus offers a host of timely themes and perspectives on the public engagement with, and popular receptions of, archaeological artefacts and assemblages written by students, researchers, educators and heritage practitioners.
This study focuses on the meaning and acquisition of the word thesaurus in monastic early medieval sources. The term essentially refers to objects characterized by strong symbolic, economic, cultural ...and sumptuary value. In the monastic Rules the word does not appear because the forms of accumulation and conservation of wealth were extraneous to the vow of poverty disciplined and emphasized by the drafters. With the growth of the monasteries, the promise of royal protection, the strengthening of ties with the power elites and the establishment of the institution of exemption, the treasures grow in importance, underlining the prestige acquired by the single monastery. The objects that compose it become a non-secondary element of what we can define the material memory of the monastic community, providing information on patrons, on the workshops active in the monastery, on the exchanges established with monastic foundations and with local communities, on donations from power groups active in the territory and finally on the subtraction and dispersion suffered.
The importance of the Law of Treasure is largely the result of the spectacular growth in the activity of metal detecting which, starting in the 1960’s, has grown so much in popularity that it now ...brings to our knowledge each year more than a thousand objects of historical, cultural or archaeological interest. The nature and volume of these finds has in turn led to a greater public concern to ensure that measures exist which will be conducive to the retention and effective preservation of the more important of those objects. It is, of course, essential that facilities exist for the physical examination and conservation of finds and that those facilities should be accessible and adequate. But the law has an important part to play in this process by ensuring that finds of substantial value or importance should be preserved for the nation and made available to the public in museums. For many hundreds of years, the Law of Treasure was the common law of treasure trove. Today it is essentially based on the Treasure Act 1996. Although the Act is a great improvement on the common law it is nevertheless not always rational and the meaning of some of its provisions is sometimes obscure. This book aims to provide a reliable guide to the Law of Treasure in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and also to explain the role played by legal institutions, such as the Coroner, in that process. This book will be of interest to archaeologists, museums, coroner’s offices, finds liaison officers, farmers and landlords’ associations. It will also be of interest and utility to metal detectorists since, in addition to explaining what objects are considered to be treasure by the law, it explains the legal restrictions on searching for artefacts, the duty to report finds of treasure and the structure of the valuation process and rewards.
Stories of hidden treasure are different from other folkloric forms as in the Estonian folk tradition the motif of money is present in all genres. Monetary relations are discussed in proverbs and ...riddles. The problems of poverty and wealth are present in fairy tales. Opinions and dreams concerning money are verbalised in poetic forms in folk songs. People know and still practice various methods, partly based on traditional beliefs, that are known to bring good luck in money. The techniques of old magic meet modern recommendations of various kinds. In this article, the focus is on tradition relating to stories of hidden treasure. The legends and other stories (about 5,000 archive texts and recordings) are kept in the Estonian Folklore Archives and date back to the 19th and 20th centuries, although there are more recent materials. We can find three main fields in this tradition, depending on their connection with reality: 1) stories based in fact and on a real event, as evidenced by for example an archaeological find; 2) narratives that are part of local historical and toponymic traditions representing mental geography; 3) unlocalised stories that do not represent folk beliefs or legends and instead deal with more general questions such as what the real price of economic growth is, what consequences humans can face when luck smiles on them, what dangers – including supernatural sanctions – threaten people, and what consequences can be expected when they come into contact with treasures of unknown origin.
This book traces the origin of the legend of El Dorado and the various expeditions that set out to locate that mysterious land of untold wealth in South America. Motivated by both fanciful rumors of ...a golden city ruled by a man who coated himself daily with gold dust, and the more practical allure of a region abundant in cinnamon trees (a spice that was worth its weight in gold to Europeans), many conquistadors convinced themselves that another native empire awaited their conquest. These quests for fortune and glory would lead to an encounter with fierce female warriors who were believed to be the Amazons of ancient Greek lore, and the discovery of the mighty river later named for the legendary Amazon tribe. The first half of this book details the lesser-known accounts of German interest in locating the wealth of a golden kingdom called Xerira and an elusive passage at Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo which supposedly led to the Pacific Ocean. The second section focuses on the various Spanish efforts to discover El Dorado, each of which was eventually doomed to despair, disappointment, and death.
This study aims to analyze implementation, supporting factors, innovation, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of implementing the Directorate General of Treasury's electronic application. This ...study used descriptive qualitative method. The results of the study show that the e-office services provided by the Makassar II State Treasury Office are divided into six types of work unit application categories available on the Makassar Directorate General of Treasury website, namely GPP applications, VAT applications, POK applications, SAS applications, SIMAK applications, and SAIBA applications. Supporting factors that influence the implementation of e-office at the Makassar II State Treasury Office are telecommunications infrastructure, internet connection, human resources, availability of funds, and legal instruments. The innovation carried out by the Makassar II State Treasury Office to improve e-office services is by developing Warkopta and Tudang Sipulung services. The advantage of using e-office in an agency is that it can carry out administrative activities more easily, quickly, transparently, orderly, integrated, productive, accurate, safe, and efficient. The disadvantage of using e-office in an agency is that it is vulnerable to data leaks because all activities including personal identity are contained in the system.
This article attends to the material legacies of past violence through a focus on the contemporary search for buried gold in the Kurdish-majority region of Van in southeastern Turkey--gold believed ...to have been left behind by Armenians fleeing the 1915 Genocide. Grounded in an exploration of local narratives and practices of treasure hunting, it demonstrates how the search for buried gold illuminates the multiple, contradictory, and ambiguous ways that the violent history of the Genocide continues to animate and enchant everyday life in the region. Through a focus on the semi-illicit digging for buried gold in a post-genocide geography, this article highlights how past and present cycles of violence are sedimented into the material landscape and how memory, temporality, and the reverberations of historic crimes coalesce in the enchanted objects hidden beneath its surface. By approaching treasure hunting as an embodied interaction with the past, it argues that the search and digging for mythical buried gold is a material recognition and unearthing of the taboo and officially denied history of the destruction of the Armenian community. Furthermore, it argues that treasure hunters translate an understanding of the violent past of the Genocide into buried gold in the present--what I term "historical alchemy." The process of historical alchemy, which involves the transformation of a history of genocide into gold, demonstrates the fundamentally material quality of how the past is imbricated in the present and sedimented in the landscape. It is this material temporality--echoes of past genocide emerging from the earth as buried objects and remnants of a silenced history made physical in the present--that highlights the intrinsic links between 1915 and 2015, between the Armenian and Kurdish communities, and between ongoing cycles of violence, ruination, and dispossession. Keywords: treasure hunting, materiality, temporality, enchantment, violence, genocide
•Secondhand markets are rapidly growing; products on display are often disorganized.•Disorder (vs. order) increases consumers’ perceptions of finding hidden treasure.•Disorder (vs. order) increases ...consumers’ perceptions of risk.•These perceptions have opposing effects on value and purchase likelihood.•Offering a return policy or signaling seller knowledge affects perceptions.
The market for secondhand items – goods previously owned by others- is rapidly growing. Disordered environments, characterized by disorganized or messy product displays, are frequently found in secondhand stores. How does disorder affect consumer perceptions of secondhand retailers as well as the merchandise for sale? A set of four studies finds disorder (vs. order) in the secondhand retail environment has opposing effects – enhancing consumers’ perceptions of finding hidden treasure but also heightening risk perceptions. However, the positive effects of disorder from increased hidden treasure perceptions do not overcome the negative effects from risk. For secondhand retailers who may face barriers to tidying up, what can be done to alter these inferences? We test and show that secondhand retailers can reduce risk and/or boost hidden treasure perceptions by a) offering a return policy or b) by signaling seller inventory knowledge.
Display omitted
Defending National Treasures explores the fate of art and cultural heritage during the Nazi occupation of France. The French cultural patrimony was a crucial locus of power struggles between German ...and French leaders and among influential figures in each country. Karlsgodt examines the preservation policy that the Vichy regime enacted in an assertion of sovereignty over French art museums, historic monuments, and archeological sites. The limits to this sovereignty are apparent from German appropriations of public statues, Jewish-owned art collections, and key "Germanic" works of art from French museums. A final chapter traces the lasting impact of the French wartime reforms on preservation policy.
In Defending National Treasures, Karlsgodt introduces the concept ofpatrimania to reveal examples of opportunism in art preservation. During the war, French officials sought to acquire coveted artwork from Jewish collections for the Louvre and other museums; in the early postwar years, they established a complicated guardianship over unclaimed art recovered from Germany. A cautionary tale for our own times,Defending National Treasures examines the ethical dimensions of museum acquisitions in the ongoing noble quest to preserve great works of art.
In spring 2023, the Gdansk publishers: słowo/obraz terytoria released the first volume of Krzysztof Pomian’sstudy Muzeum. Historia światowa World History of theMuseum. It launches the Polish edition ...of the monumentalthree-volume work published by Éditions Gallimard in Pariswhich is the first study of the universal history of the museum.This is more than a book, it’s a monument! (Plus qu’un livre,un monument!) is what Fabien Simode wrote in the l’OEilmonthly (March 2021). At present rarely are such historicallybroad studies released, possibly because of authors’ fear ofbeing potentially accused of postmodernist meta-narrative.In this case, the work is a comprehensive synthesis in view ofthe entailed chronology, geography, and thematic range. Thediscussed volume Od skarbca do muzeum From a TreasureChamber to the Museum recently published for Polish readerstackles the process of European collectorship crystalizingand first museums being its consequence, mainly Italian andseveral northern ones, from the Capitoline Museum in Rome(1471) up to London’s British Museum (1753). Subsequentvolumes are already being prepared. Titled L’ancrage européen,1789–1850, the second one is dedicated to the historyof the museum consolidating into a permanent and significantelement of European culture, close to the institution weknow today: started by the revolutionary Louvre (1793), thishistory is created by the vast part of the major museums oftoday’s Western Europe. Finally, volume three A la conquêtedu monde, 1850–2020 is the most extensive of them all bothchronologically and territorially, as well as in view of the numberof museums and their activity discussed. Author’s considerationsencompass museums’ expansion to Eastern Europeincluding Russia, and then eventually to the rest of the world:Asia, Africa, both Americas, mainly the territories connectedwith the West through colonial bonds; the United States, beingthe area where today’s dominating world centres havebeen formed, is analysed separately. At that point the book’stitle: world history, gains its full relevance, and relates both tothe interwar period in the democratic and totalitarian world,WW II, and to the long contemporary era.
